


Flora

by Error403HRD



Series: Guard & Wild LU [2]
Category: Linked Universe - Fandom, The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: Exposition, Forgiveness, Gen, Hey this one actually has dialogue, Linked Universe (Legend of Zelda), One Shot, Overprotective, Realization, Talking, Wild (Linked Universe)-centric, Wordcount: 1.000-5.000
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-31
Updated: 2020-12-31
Packaged: 2021-03-10 21:14:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,138
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28443741
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Error403HRD/pseuds/Error403HRD
Summary: Wild gets an apology and Guard realizes something.(I told you it wouldn't be that long vikteren!)
Relationships: Flora & Wild (Linked Universe), Four & Hyrule & Legend & Sky & Time & Twilight & Warriors & Wild & Wind (Linked Universe), Sky & Wild (Linked Universe)
Series: Guard & Wild LU [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1952443
Comments: 8
Kudos: 67





	Flora

**Author's Note:**

  * For [vikteren](https://archiveofourown.org/users/vikteren/gifts).



Zelda remembers that day with regret and guilt. She'd just battled Ganon for a hundred years, her social skills eroded after so much time and she was unspeakably tired. She was met with a stranger's face when all was done, but saw a familiar one running up to her, so she didn't heed the stranger and simply took comfort in a person she knew, even if they weren't on good terms.

She remembers the words she spoke and she hates herself for it. For thinking that it-that _Wild_ was an unfeeling and unthinking clone.

Wild was silent, said nothing in response, and she was too tired to notice the expressions he made. Guard said nothing, his face didn't even twitch, and things were like they had always been.

When they made it to Hateno, she didn't pay much mind to how quickly they left. It took Purah mentioning how odd it was that Wild hadn't returned for books for her to remember her actions.

Purah had been upset when she explained what happened, but Zelda was more so. She remembered her words and realized just how hurtful they were. She had to apologize, but no matter what she did, whenever she found Guard, Wild was conveniently off raiding a monster camp or collecting supplies.

She knows her apologies fell on deaf ears. Guard never had patience for her excuses, and she respected him for it, but it presented yet another hurdle in letting her apology be heard. Just as she finally caught up to Wild, him and Guard had joined a large group and jumped through a portal.

Zelda was sure at that moment, that she'd never see them again, that she was their reasoning for jumping into a strange portal with people they didn't know. Two of them had strange marking on their faces, and Zelda could only hope that they hadn't joined a cult.

She returned to Purah's lab, solemn, but doing her best to assist in Purah's research until the heroes returned.... _if_ they returned.

~

Guard liked the new group, Warriors especially. Guard's experiences as a royal guard were an interesting deviation from Warriors's experiences as a captain.

Wild was making friends, friends who didn't think she was weird for occasionally wearing dresses or elaborate hairdos, hell, Legend sometimes joined her.

Of course, with the positives, there were negatives. For instance, there came the obligatory "Wild, no alcohol, it's really bad for you" talk when it came out that Wind could somehow drink everyone under the table with no effort. Guard occasionally had a drink before a battle, but never enough to make him even a little tipsy, unlike Wind, who frequently drank enough alcohol to kill a horse like it was nothing. Guard wasn't sure if he was horrified to learn that Wind knew exactly how to make his deadly moonshine or if he was just sad that Wind was well on his way to becoming an alcoholic.

Guard resisted the urge to say "I told you so" when Wild experienced her first hangover. Turns out, her alcohol tolerance was really low, lower than Four's actually.

But, despite that, Guard reveled in the chaos, because at least Wild wasn't running off doing dangerous things _alone_ anymore (because it would be a cold day in hell if Guard ever joined her...usually.)

Guard was a little jealous of Twilight, since he, Wild, and Time had a sort of familial thing that Guard wasn't in on.

(Guard was still the Best Brother because he was the only one allowed to use Wild's slate without her hovering to make sure the slate stayed in one piece.)

Legend, Warriors, and him had formed their own trifecta....namely the "tease each other and be needlessly sarcastic to each other" group. Certain cliques were so close knit that sometimes it seemed like Sky was the only one left out. Then someone had a bad day and Sky was there to help, thoroughly establishing his role as Team Mom.

It was an important role when they had the Angst trio (Time, Legend, Warriors), and also Wind, the literal child (and wasn't that a smack in the face because hey look this child did what you couldn't despite being a year younger).

And of course, they had Hyrule, resident nurse. Because the Arson trio (Hyrule, Wild, Four), Chaos trio (Wild, Wind, Time), Weird Hobby trio (Four, Legend, Warriors), and Wanders Off Alone trio (Four, Hyrule, Twilight) cause way too many injuries for that position to not be a thing. At least the Hoarder Trio (Wild, Legend, Warriors) always had medical supplies covered (even if most of the stuff Warriors carried was worthless garbage and monster parts and Legend's repertoire was mostly weapons and magic jewelry).

It was a good time, and Guard was happy everyone meshed well....for the most part (Because Legend had something against Four and was strangely tight-lipped about it). He was surprised there wasn't much complaining or clashing, but them each having established roles in the group was nice and presented a little stability in their chaotic life:

Time was the leader (aka Dad) and made the final call on most things while also ensuring no injuries were being hidden and no dirty laundry would come back to bite them. Figuratively and literally.

Sky was the therapist (aka Mom) because he's surprisingly nice to talk to, very good at hugs and comforting people, and he has ungodly amounts of patience and an oddly large well of good advice.

Four was the smithy (aka the one Wild breaks) because he's a licensed blacksmith, unlike Legend, and only has a tantrum when Wild presents a broken weapon (less "tantrum" and more "breakdown") unlike Legend who frequently got annoyed with having to take care of the others' stuff. (Guard has yet to explain that Wild's cursed because he finds Four's reactions entertaining.)

Wild is the cook (aka the one who threatens people with a ladle when they get too close to the pot) because he's literally the only one that can cook. Guard doesn't really understand, but he willingly eats Hyrule's food and Rock Roast with no complaint, so he has no room to judge.

Warriors and Guard are the guards (aka the ones who consistently have weapons) because they have practice with running on little sleep and are always on guard because they've been trained for combat. Warriors usually takes first watch and Guard usually takes third (Wild usually takes second because he doesn't really need sleep. The only exceptions are if he's injured or if some sorry sap did something to garner being punished.) They're the only ones who have weapons when eating, and they both have back up weapons for when Four's appraising their main ones.

Legend is the veteran (aka the one who's so done with this shit that he knows it by heart) because he has a lot of experience with "heroing". He leads them through dungeons since he can usually figure out the layout within minutes and he's always got an item or weapon for whatever situation they're thrown into. He's got a scary amount of variety.

Hyrule is their mage (aka the medic) because he's the only one with an innate ability for magic (Time and Legend both suspect that he's part fairy) and he's really good at controlling it. He's essentially the medic, but he's got combat oriented spells too. The first time he used Thunder, Guard was reminded of Urbosa, and the first time he used Fire, he was reminded of Wild. Still, he was very good at making sure only enemies were hit, so it's fine.

Wind's their slippery little shit (aka the one who busts them out of bad situations). Essentially, he's charming and could probably talk you out of your life savings and children if you aren't paying attention. He's great with people, misdirection, and, if all else fails, he's a pirate, he knows how to bust out of jail, and he's great at making epic escapes. (Apparently he was already good at misdirection and abusing his charisma, but Tetra was the one to show him how entertaining the results could be after their first prison break where Wind somehow managed to convince the guard to open the door and Tetra took the opportunity.)

So it made sense that they got pretty close. Everyone's Hyrules were so interesting, even if it took a bit for them to realize that Wind wasn't lying about his Hyrule literally being underwater.

That's why, when they landed outside Hateno village, greeted by the sight of Zelda picking truffles, they immediately noticed Guard's tenseness and the fear radiating off Wild as he uncharacteristically hid behind Twilight. It only took a second for Zelda to notice them. She gave a smile,

"Li-Guard! I was wondering if you'd come back-ah, Wild..." there was a moment of tense silence as Zelda considered her words, and Wind was ready to step in to distract her if necessary.

"Wild...I feel that I owe you an apology. I was not in my right mind when I made that statement...and I...I'm sorry that I made it seem like I'd kill you without a thought. It's....taken me a while to wrap my head around what exactly the consequences of my words were, and I know Guard has no patience for my excuses, so I won't offer any. I don't expect you to forgive me, and I don't expect you to want to be near me ever again, but I felt that I should at least apologize, for the little that it's worth."

Once more, it was silent. Wild took a breath and gave her a shaky smile, while Guard regarded her coldly, refusing to speak.

"I....don't exactly know how to respond...I..." Wind had had enough and stepped in, giving her a flat stare as he stood protectively in front of the still-frightened Wild,

"He'll think on it ma'am, he's still scared of you and needs time to process that." Zelda froze, before giving a watery laugh, wiping away tears as she collected her basket,

"I....do supposed that you're right. I'll be in my home, so Wild can go visit Purah. I'll be back at the lab tomorrow, so if you want to speak to me, you'll know where to find me." She gave them a small nod before scurrying back to her home with a basket of truffles in hand.

Wild took a breath, clearly relaxed now that she was out of sight. Guard dropped his cold demeanor and gave Wild a tight hug,

"You know you don't have to forgive her." Wild gave a nod and smiled thankfully at Wind once she was released,

"I know....I feel bad, I really do...but she...she offered to kill me for you....as if I were an object. I just....I don't know what to do...." Guard gave a hum, patting her shoulder,

"Alright, how about this, you and Sky go see Purah and I'll book us some rooms at the inn, and if you haven't made a decision by tomorrow, I'll inform her that you need more time and that we need to leave. We'll head to Lurelin instead since it'll give you breathing room and isn't too far from here." Wild gave a nod and they were off to Hateno.

If the group formed a pseudo-circle around Wild, well, no one mentioned it.

Once Guard sent Wild and Sky off, Time raised an eyebrow and he sighed, knowing he had to explain lest someone misunderstand the situation later,

"After Wild defeated Ganon, Zelda ignored him and upon seeing me, offered to merge us together, essentially killing Wild. From there, Wild made herself scarce by wearing the stealth set, and I took up my position as the silent guard she always knew. We brought her to Impa to catch up a little, and then we took her here, I gave her the house I bought, and Wild and I have avoided Hateno ever since. We occasionally saw her after that, but I made sure Wild was far away for those encounters." Legend rolled his eyes, and Guard felt a spark of annoyance that he was taking the situation so lightly,

"She was just getting off a battle, right? Probably wasn't in her right mind, it's a-" Guard glared, fighting not to raise his voice in public, he could see Time nodding in agreement with Legend, so clearly he needed to elaborate,

"I knew her before the Calamity, and she is a horrible person under stress. The only reason she's kind right now is because she's had time to relax. The moment she has a time limit, she reverts to a horrible person. I had to take the brunt of that when I was her guard. I knew exactly the types of things she was capable of, and I knew exactly what horrible things she could say if prompted. Wild is still emotionally immature. I'm the only one she'd spoken to on a regular basis and I made it a point to never be angry with her. Zelda saying she could kill her was bad enough, but she can do so much worse, so I let Wild make herself scarce because I didn't want to risk something even worse coming out of Zelda's mouth." Legend's eye twitched, and Guard was annoyed that he wouldn't just drop it,

"Yes, but this is Wild's decision to make, not yours. Zelda looked genuinely apologetic, and the fact that Wind didn't call her out on any bullshit only cements that. It doesn't matter what hang-ups you have, because it's Wild's decision that involves _Wild's_ experiences, not yours. You can't keep sheltering her from conflict, she needs to learn or she'll never be able to make her own decisions. Or is that what you're really after?"

Guard's mind froze at the accusation. His face went red and his eyes narrowed,

"I-Wild's my only family left-"

"Which doesn't mean you get to baby her."

"-I-" Legend crossed his arms, scowling and looking genuinely pissed in a manner that Guard had only seen a few times before,

"You don't get to make excuses Guard. Wild is her own person, and while she deserves to have someone in her corner, she can't be shielded from the consequences of her actions and she can't be forced to never get into conflicts. She needs to learn how to deal with angry people, she needs to learn that sometimes the issue isn't going to be neatly wrapped with a nice little bow at the end, so for once, Guard, you get no say in this."

Guard wanted to be angry, but it would be no use, when Legend made an ultimatum, he'd do everything to ensure it was met.

Time placed a hand on his shoulder and smiled,

"Take some time to relax, Guard, unless there happen to be monsters near here?" Guard shook his head, annoyed at the situation he was in,

"No, the bokoblins have already been taken care of, and it would be a challenge for any moblin to make their way here." And like that, the conversation was dropped and Guard knew Warriors was keeping a close eye on him to make sure he didn't leave and influence Wild's decision.

When Sky and Wild returned, Wild said nothing, only giving them a nod and wandering to Zelda's house.

Guard desperately wanted to follow, but the look on Legend's face warned him that that would not be a good idea.

~

Sky gave him a smile and Wild knew she'd probably have to explain the situation a little better. If only she knew how, but she did her best to sum it up anyway,

"I...when Zelda finished fighting, she ignored me, offered to kill me, and then ignored my existence completely when Guard told her no." Sky gave a hum, side eying her with slight concern,

"Did she know that you were your own person?" Seeing Wild's confusion, he elaborated, "Well, you look an awful lot like Guard, and it's not unreasonable to assume that you were some type of clone he made to help out on the journey." Wild nodded, not having considered that before, she did look an awful lot like Guard at the start of their journey, it was a reasonable assumption, a little out of the box, but with all the weird Shiekah technology, it wasn't impossible.

"And now Zelda knows that I'm a person and she feels bad about making me scared." Sky gave a nod, glad that she understood,

"And Wind usually knows when someone's lying, but he didn't say anything." 

"So she's probably actually sorry?" Sky's bright grin lifted Wild's spirits, and Wild thought back on his experiences with Zelda.

She was tired, she probably thought that he didn't have a mind of his own, and even then, she had no idea who he was, but she knew Guard and latched on to him.

And wasn't she fighting for a hundred years? He can't imagine she was using her social skills, even if she was able to communicate with Ganon.

So, she was just confused and it wasn't entirely her fault, and she was actually sorry. He had no reason not to forgive her and give her another chance.

"Alright, after we see Purah, I'll go talk to her!" And just like that, the conversation moved onto Purah's area of research and what exactly Wild was there for.

After an hour, most of it spent helping Purah make things explode, Sky and Wild left.

"Wow, she's fun." Wild bounced along the trail, grinning, 

"I know right! She loves explosions just as much as me, but she's super smart!" Sky gave an amused smile, ignoring the smoke and ashes on their clothes.

"So, I'll head back to the group and you get to see Zelda?" Wild nodded and continued bouncing along, waving to the farmers as he passed by.

"Good luck," was Sky's parting statement as he went to join Four, who was working on some kind of demonic project by the looks of things.

Wild gave the group a nod, already thinking over how he'd approach Zelda and what he'd say. It wasn't much, but he hopes she'd forgive him for not understanding. It was rude to just assume that she meant ill will towards him when they'd never even met.

So, knocking on Zelda's door and swallowing his nervousness, he gave her a smile when she opened it

"Um, hi, I....I just wanted to say that I'm sorry for assuming that you wanted to hurt me. Sky talked it out with me and helped me realize that you weren't in the best state of mind, and I forgive you, so I'm willing to give you another chance. You don't need to make it up to me-" Zelda gave him a hug, a huge grin on her face,

"Thank you so much! There's no need to apologize, I probably would've done the same if I'm being honest...I..." her face fell, "What's Guard's stance on this?" Wild shrugged, glad that his nervousness was for nothing,

"I don't really know, but he didn't protest me walking over here and he didn't tell me to give it more time, so I think he's okay with it." And just like that her smile was back,

"Brilliant! Should we head to Purah's? Or would you rather I stay here?" Wild gave a smile, glad to have made another friend,

"This is your home, besides, I want to see how chaotic it'll get with another person." Zelda gave a giggle and put on her shoes before they headed out.

~

When Guard saw Wild walking up with Zelda, both of them smiling and laughing, he couldn't tell if the feeling rolling in his gut was nervousness or jealousy.

He was just worried about Wild, they were never needlessly apart for so long, and whenever they were it was because Wild found something interesting to hunt down. He felt a hand on his shoulder, but didn't bother looking away from his brother joking around with a princess that he was terrified of not two hours ago.

"See, it all turned out fine."

"Until she gets irritated and everything goes back to how it was before." Evidently, Time didn't expect such a scathing and pessimistic response, and Legend's impressed whistle did nothing to cheer him up,

"I know that tone well. He's being overprotective." Finally, Guard pulled his eyes away from Wild and gave Legend a scathing glare, 

"If I were overprotective, I wouldn't let Wild do half the shit she does." Four snorted, overhearing the exchange and looking amused. Guard turned to him, irritation growing by the second. Four put down his tools and gave Guard his undivided attention,

"Clearly you aren't getting it. I'll break it down: you're either emotionally overprotective or controlling, probably both, neither of which are good. You shield Wild from other people but let her do stupid shit because you know how to deal with physical injuries, but not emotional ones. As you said, Wild is your only family, you know how to treat wounds, but you can't fix a broken heart. What you need to learn is that Wild needs to grow up, you can't keep her a child forever. As she grows, she's going to become more independent, she's going to want more alone time, she's inevitably going to make more friends, lose more friends, and she needs to learn how to deal with that. Hell, she's going to lose us, we're only together for a mission and I doubt the goddesses are kind enough to let us jump through time and space to see each other when this is all over. If you want her to be able to cope with that, you need to let her interact with other people, you need to let her learn how to navigate speech. We may be a little broken, but we can all deal with loss, trauma, anger, and sadness. Currently, Wild has no way of dealing with it. Better to let her learn healthy ways of navigating her emotions now, rather than have her falling back on unhealthy ones later, the most likely of which is isolation, which isn't good for anyone, but it's the only thing she knows well, because you've been isolating her and the only way she can deal with problems is to either run away or have big brother fix it for her."

Guard glared, unable to come up with a rebuttal, because Four was right. Wind's sigh was unexpected and unwelcome, the group turned to their youngest member,

"I almost did the same thing to Aryll and had to have Tetra knock some sense into me. Wild isn't a kid anymore, she's got to grow up, even if you'd rather she didn't."

Guard would very much rather she didn't. Wild was his little brother, his little sister, and the only thing nearing family that he had. But Four was right, Wild was going to be absolutely crushed when this is over, and it was naive to automatically assume that he'd even be alive to help her when that happened.

The air had gotten heavy with that last comment, and Warriors wasn't in the mood for more heart-to-hearts, so he did his best to cheer the mood,

"At least you didn't murder someone to keep her isolated!"

Something must've twitched in his face because Warriors's look of complete and utter horror was out of place otherwise,

"Guard, you didn't-" He looked away, attempting to keep a straight face,

"Okay, to be fair, he was in his mid-thirties and clearly hitting on an underage girl, besides, a Gerudo guard helped me so I won't be wanted for it or anything when the body's found." Time pulled his best Disappointed Face and Legend looked like he couldn't decide whether to be amused or disappointed. Twilight just shook his head,

"And that is how you know your protectiveness has gotten out of hand."

And just like that, they went back to their little tasks: Sky and Four were working on something that involved metallurgy and woodcarving, Legend, Warriors, and Guard went back to ribbing each other so Guard could put off thinking about his actions, Time and Twilight were talking as Twilight stroked a rabbit that ran up to him, and Wind was with Hyrule concocting some insane scheme to get Wild in on later.

When Wild came back, she looked happy, so Guard let her gush about the encyclopedia Zelda gave her and how they made so many explosions.

Guard refrained from voicing his disapproval of their friendship, because it made Wild happy and he didn't want to prove Four and Legend right.

**Author's Note:**

> And there we have it. I realized that Guard was essentially perfect, then I looked back and realized that I could use Bozai's death (a spur of the moment decision) as an idea for some personality flaws for Guard.
> 
> And sorry, no Zelda-bashing. It was a complete accident to make her so uncaring, but vikteren helped with some ideas on that front. I still don't really like her, but Wild needs more friends.
> 
> As usual, leave comments for tags, suggestions to clean the story up a bit, and any errors you might find! If you feel like it, I'm happy to take recommendations for the next one-shot if you have them!


End file.
